


Clipped Wings

by Eloquus



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Death, Injury, Major Character Injury, POV First Person, Regret, Sad, Sad Ending, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing, The Galra are evil, not a wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 21:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12021132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eloquus/pseuds/Eloquus
Summary: They had a perfect plan. In and out. Save Matt and all the other prisoners. Simple. But what happens when everything goes wrong?





	Clipped Wings

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is my first fic that I've posted here. Please feel free to destroy me in the comments for this. If you want to maybe comment who you think is going to die just based on the summary, that'd be cool. Hope you like it!

It’s finally happening. I finally found Matt. The Galra put him in some random prison slash work camp on the outer edges of the Small Magellanic Cloud. We were going to go get him in two vargas. I’m so excited I can hardly stay in one spot for more than a few ticks. Hunk tried to get me to eat something, but I’m too unsettled to eat. Shiro totally understands what’s going on with me. He tried to get me to spar with him, spewing some bull about something going wrong.

“Nothing’s going to go wrong, Shiro. It’s some rinky-dink prison sector. They only have their robot guards there and one overseer. Coran helped me find the right frequency to shut them all down, remember? We used it on our last mission,” I counter, effectively shutting Shiro down. And honestly, nothing could go wrong. I’d outlined this plan – that’s right, me – to be foolproof. Fool. Proof. Coran would send out the frequency to shut down the bots from the castle (we checked the range, it’ll totally cover the whole prison). Shiro and Lance would go in together in Lance’s lion and take out the overseer before they noticed anything wrong. Keith, Hunk, and I will release the prisoners. Allura will keep the prisoners calm and lead them to the pods. Once we have all the prisoners, we get out of there. Simple as that.  
~~  
Before I know it, I’m putting on my armor and racing to the hangar with the pods. It’s time to go. It’s tiiiiiiiime! Allura is already there, waiting. Not even thirty ticks later, Keith and Hunk enter. We all climb into our respective pods and I put on my helmet.

“Shiro, Lance, you guys ready?” I ask.

“Yeah, are the rest of you set?” Shiro replies.

“Yes! Let’s go!” I yell enthusiastically.

“Guys, I don’t know about this. Doesn’t it seem a bit too, I dunno, easy to you?”

“Oh, shut up, Lance. My plan is perfect. Nothing will go wrong.”

“Famous last words.”

“Lance,” Shiro chides.

“Look, I’m just saying-”

“Wow Lance, I thought you liked my plan.”

“I do Pidge, I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s a great plan.”

“Paladins, we should get a move on,” Allura interrupts.  
~  
We are in the process of releasing the prisoners. We are about a third of the way done, but still no Matt. Everything has been going smoothly so far. The robots are sprawled on the floors and Shiro had said he and Lance hadn’t had much trouble taking out the overseer. Everything is going precisely as I planned.

“Guys, there’s something-” Lance began.

“Something what?” I hear Keith yell from a little ways down the hall. No response. Oh no. The comms are down. I could hear heavy footsteps racing towards us. I raise my bayard, ready to attack whatever rounds the corner. It was Shiro, with Lance trailing not far behind. Lance is bleeding out of a tear in the fabric on his side.

“We need to go! Now!” Shiro yells.

“But we haven’t found Matt yet!” I scream. I don’t wait for Shiro’s reply before I take off running in the direction that Shiro and Lance came from. “Matt! Matt! Where are you?!” I shout.

“Here!” I hear someone call from further down the corridor. I race down to where I heard the call and there he is! 

“Matt! I’m here to get you out. Can you walk?”

“Yeah,” is the soft reply. I hurriedly place the unlocking mechanism on the keypad and the cell opens. Matt stumbles out. I check the cell to see if anyone else is in there. No one. I turn to face my brother. He studies me for a moment, then finally, “Katie?” he asks. I don’t reply, instead I just hug him with all that I’ve got. I know I’m crying. He probably is too. That’s when I hear it. Thundering footfalls, steadily becoming louder. The Galra.

I pull away from the hug and shove my brother towards where the rest of the paladins are.

“Go!” I yell at the top of my lungs so the team can hear. “I’ll hold them off!” I shift into the attack position that Shiro showed me. I can tell my comrades and brother haven’t moved. “I can handle this! Get out of here!”

“That’s suicide!” Keith yells.

“I said get the hell out! I’ve got this!” I scream in a last-ditch effort. I can hear my teammates running. Good.

The Galra soldiers round the corner. Not a single one robotic. At least a dozen of them. I don’t think I can handle this. I grit my teeth and sink lower into my stance. I haven’t given them time to process the fact that I’m the only one standing in their way of the other paladins and the escaping prisoners before I attack.  
I use my small blade to sever the first soldier’s neck, then wrench it back into another’s stomach, while kicking and punching at kneecaps and eyes and whatever other vulnerable areas I can get near. It doesn’t take long before they’ve knocked my bayard away and have me in a headlock. I’ve downed four of the soldiers and another two are bleeding. I smirk at my handiwork before initiating the move the Keith taught me to get out of a headlock. I pull on the soldier’s arm so I can tuck my chin in the crook of his elbow before locking my ankle behind his and pulling. He falls and I instantly rush towards one of the injured soldiers who is in between me and my bayard. I jab my fingers into his bleeding side and dive towards my weapon. As soon as I’ve got my fingers around it, I shoot off the grapple hook and let it pull me to safety.

I’m on my feet and running when it hits me. I can see the blast burst through my chest. I run for a few more steps before I get too dizzy to stand. My chest is aching already and I know my armor is totaled. I can hear someone screaming in the distance. I crash to my knees and twist slightly so I land on my side and not my face. I nearly scream in pain at the impact, but I bite my lip and only whimper. I roll all the way over onto my back and look up to find a Galra looming over me with a spear pointed at my neck. I can taste blood. I don’t know if it’s from the injury or me biting my lower lip. It’s likely both.

“Green paladin, how lucky we are to have caught you,” he grinned.

“You didn’t catch me,” I scoff. Before he can react, I grab the spear and thrust it into my neck.  
His face goes slack in realization at what I did. I smile as brightly as I can as I choke on my own blood. I would scream in agony, but my vocal cords have been severed by the spear. Red spots begin to blur my vision. I’ve only got a couple more minutes to live.

I’m sorry Matt, for not being able to be around after I just saved you. I’m sorry Shiro, for not being a good enough paladin to succeed and for overestimating the probable success of this mission. I’m sorry Keith, for not taking the time to know you well enough. I’m sorry Lance, for being such a brat to you even though you were just trying to help, I always thought of you as another older brother. I’m sorry Hunk, for leaving just as we were starting to become great friends. I’m sorry Coran, for not being able to finish updating the castle’s coding and tech for you. I’m sorry Allura, for not being as great of a paladin as I could be.  
So many regrets. So many things to say that I’ll never be able to say. I’ll never be able to spend time with Matt ever again. I’ll never be able to eat Hunk’s cooking ever again. I’ll never be able to tell Shiro and Lance how glad I am for them being there for me. I’ll never be able to spar with Keith again. I’ll never be able to hear one of Coran’s silly stories or braid Allura’s hair again. So many regrets, and I’m only fifteen. 

I don’t want to die.

I haven’t done everything yet.

I haven’t lived.

I can’t die.

The world fades with the last thing I’ll ever see being the soft purple lights of the Galra prison.

I don’t want to die.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so feel free to destroy me in the comments for killing Pidge. I'm sorry. I have an idea for another part to go with the story, but I don't know if I want to take my time writing it if nobody is going to read it. please comment if you would like me to continue this story! Thanks for reading!


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